Advertising your business on your own car

[safesys]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice. I drive a lot of miles - mainly on company business - and it has occurred to me that instead of paying money for bus adverts, it might be better initially to put some branding on my car.

Firstly - have any of you done this and had a reasonable response from it? If so, can you recommend a good company that would be able to help me design the graphics for it and get them applied to my car (I wouldn't trust myself to do it!). I'm thinking probably window vinyls for the rear window and the four rear side passenger windows (it's an estate).

Thanks in advance!

Chris

 

[rickyhyde89]

Vista print sell large magnets to stick onto you doors. You can use their templates and edit them or upload your own design. I'm sure they will be able to go anywhere on your car, not just the doors. I think they were around £13 each which is much cheaper than having vinyl stickers put on and a lot easier to remove.

 

[Michael-Bush]

Word of advice - don't use Vistaprint if you want a professional image.

 

[rickyhyde89]

Word of advice - don't use Vistaprint if you want a professional image.

Do you mean just the car magnets or any of their products?

 

[BustersDogs]

I don't know if vans count, but yes I get a lot of work through my signwriting. I see the magnetic plates on cars and usually they are too small to read unless the car is stationary or you want to crash.

 

[rickyhyde89]

I see the magnetic plates on cars and usually they are too small to read unless the car is stationary or you want to crash.

It depends how much text you have on them and what your business is. If your business is something that people would easily recognise with just a picture like nail beautitian, brick layer, car mechanic ect... then you could have a picture relating to your business and your phone numbers in large text so it would be easy to read.

 

[BustersDogs]

It could be that I see a picture of a dog and I want to know if they are a rival dog walker, or maybe just a dog groomer.

 

[I Love Spreadsheets]

Run it past your insurance company first as it may invalidate your insurance.

It may cost you small premium hike but it is better to be on the safe side

 

[MediYeah]

What's your main sort of client base?

One of my biggest clients gave out a load of free window stickers (those ones which stick on the back windscreen) which had some branding, website, contact and something eye catching.

It worked perfectly for him - he is a personal trainer and his main target base has been stay-at-home mums. His window sticker was brand, before/after pic of a client, contact details. And it worked wonders for him.

Obviously that wouldn't work for everyone - and I guess with IT support you wouldn't have quite the same impact, but if you got some of your clients sticking it on their cars, it does spread your brand around as well.

Also if you brand your own car, and you are spending time parked at your clients office (Say for example they have their own car park) then the only people who are going to get a good look at your sticker would be...your client who is already paying you.

 

[safesys]

Thanks all. Ideally I'd like to steer away from the magnetic decals you can get from Vistaprint and the like as I have seen them before (maybe they weren't from VP though) and thought they were a bit tacky.

That's a good point about getting my clients to put it on their cars too - fortunately most of my clients are not large companies so either share their car park with other companies, or don't have any at all, so I have to park on the street - and in Central London, that's a lot of passing traffic.

I was thinking - something like:

(logo - which incorporates a URL)

Comprehensive IT support for your business

Call us free on 0800...

Nothing too wordy as, as BoredomBusters has said, I don't want people to crash while trying to read it - do you think the above would be eye-catching and simple enough to get people to call if they were thinking about changing their support provider?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[applemaidcleaning]

As above you need to let the insurance company know and if i remember i am sure DVLA too that you will change the look of your DOMESTIC vehicle - we had to when we changed a domestic car for temp security work.
But defo the insurance

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Do you mean just the car magnets or any of their products?

Absolutely anything they sell!!!

 

[I Love Spreadsheets]

As above you need to let the insurance company know and if i remember i am sure DVLA too that you will change the look of your DOMESTIC vehicle - we had to when we changed a domestic car for temp security work.
But defo the insurance

I dont think the DVLA need to know unless it is permanent - Magnetic stickers shouldnt be a problem.

The insurance company is the important one. If your car gets nicked and it had stickers on the side that they didnt know about then it is more than enough reason for them not to pay out. (Having trade signs on the car indicates that there could be trade materials or tools in the car and makes it a bigger target for crooks, as a result they may want to charge you more).

Really, really not worth the risk of not telling them.

 

[UKSBD]

Thanks all. Ideally I'd like to steer away from the magnetic decals you can get from Vistaprint and the like as I have seen them before (maybe they weren't from VP though) and thought they were a bit tacky.

They're not tacky they're magnetic

 

[Billmccallum]

Word of advice - don't use Vistaprint if you want a professional image.

I have used vista print for a few one-off items, such as the door magnets mentioned and T shirts.

They were what you would expect from a low cost supplier, T shirts were cheap and average quality, but the door magnets were excellent.

 

[matt seymour]

I don't know why people have such a big downer on Vistaprint.

I've had business cards, postcards, T-Shirts and pens from them and they've all been absolutely fine. Perfectly professional looking. The T-Shirts didn't last all that long before the logo on them started fading, but at only a few quid each I've no complaints.

Their websites are rubbish though.

 

[jhardy2008]

this is good option to promote your business. I also this for my business. I stick a sticker on my car with slogan of "Powered by (Company Name)"

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Perfectly professional looking.

No they aren't.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

IIRC the biggest problem with Vista was them sending you items you didn't order,
not sending you items you had ordered and billing for items you hadn't ordered?

 

[thetime22]

Ever thought of paying for an ad on a taxi?

 

[learndrive]

hi there

I have a driving school business so the roof sign is an advert on our car, you can get roof signs for other business too - take dominos for example but guess pretty specific and could look tack. I believe signage on car is pretty expensive, i contacted a company called digitalsignage and was about 1k for car which i felt was very high price and you would need to consider how long you intend to keep car.

We have used Vista print and found them ok especially when downloading own logo/photo etc. but yes the magnets are pretty small and not that professional but they do the job on a budget.

You can buy vinyl letters (ebay or printers etc) and stick these onto car.

Let me know if you get some good prices.

 

[learndrive]

maybe check out this other thread too- http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=211720&highlight=car+stickers

 

[safesys]

hi there

I have a driving school business so the roof sign is an advert on our car, you can get roof signs for other business too - take dominos for example but guess pretty specific and could look tack. I believe signage on car is pretty expensive, i contacted a company called digitalsignage and was about 1k for car which i felt was very high price and you would need to consider how long you intend to keep car.

We have used Vista print and found them ok especially when downloading own logo/photo etc. but yes the magnets are pretty small and not that professional but they do the job on a budget.

You can buy vinyl letters (ebay or printers etc) and stick these onto car.

Let me know if you get some good prices.

I think £1k for the whole car, as long as it is done well, is pretty reasonable if you intend to keep the car for 3 years as advertising on a bus would set you back £100ish a month anyway so you'd have spent that in 10 months, with no control over the route the bus is taking either.

Thanks for the input!

Cheers

Chris

 

[rizvani04]

Do you mean just the car magnets or any of their products?

We have just ordered shirts, stickers and mouse pads from VistaPrint. All poor quality. We won't order from them anymore

 

[sitandstay]

Hi,

I had some magnetic car signs done for my car and they were the best form of advertising. I don't think i will be paying to advertise in any magazines again.

I think (from what I have read, please correct me if I am wrong) the average car is seen up to 4 millions times a year...

I am based in Kent, so if you are local I could always pass there details onto you if you are interested, if so just drop me a PM

 

[KateCB]

The back window of our Peugeot partner tepee's have our logo, our phone number and 'martial arts supplies, print and embroidery' - thats it - done in the same colour as the vehicle - silver vehicle, silver signwriting, blue, blue writing etc. Nothing on the sides, just on that window as it is a large area and so highly 'readable'.

It costs me £20 per vehicle, look great, had lots and lots of work from it - even been 'attacked' at traffic lights by people runing up to me and asking for a business card (plenty of these in easy reach) then jumping back in their cars before the lights change!

It definately does work - sign vinyl, inside the window, nothing wordy, have business cards available, and I will continue to do it as it works so well. A sign writer will be able to orginate your logo (as long as you don't want full colour, fades and shades, intricate detail of course!) and that costs around £30, but then you can have as many cut as you need in the future as the 'origination' is a one off set up cost.

Do tell the insurance company, particularly if your car isn't insured for buesiness use, however my insurance company said that as our are insured for business use, then they didn't really care what we put on them!

 

[becky1xx]

thats a great idea and i hope to get a sticker on our car soon, then hopefully we will get some sales : ) all the best to you x

 

[sitandstay]

thats a great idea and i hope to get a sticker on our car soon, then hopefully we will get some sales : ) all the best to you x

Good luck Let us know it goes

 

[URBAN COLOUR]

Hi

I have before made my own magnetic signs for cars, vans and larger. I bought the magnetic sheet and had high quality vinyl stickers made, any design at all.

The stickers were placed on the mag sheet.. job done

An example of cost saving was for a pair of magnetic signs (size of taxi door signs) I was quoted £15 pair, My own made ones were just £7 and looked better by far.

Also, I deal with a company who supply the full car wraps or window size stickers - The full car wraps look complicated to fit (maybe farm this fitting out) but the window size would be easy, its just a case of wetting the glass first and putting the sign in place.

If you need any help with this drop me a line

 

[Signs4vans]

Vistaprint magnetic signs are very cheap so it doesn't surprise me that you think they're tacky. Generally you get what you pay for in life.

If you're looking for good quality magnetic signs you can try us - Signs4vans.co.uk . We also produce full cut vinyl and digital print vehicle liveries that you can put on yourself if you'd like to save some money.

Bill

 

[Tax-UK]

It is a great idea, not sure your wife wants to be seen in a car covered with adverts ;o)

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice. I drive a lot of miles - mainly on company business - and it has occurred to me that instead of paying money for bus adverts, it might be better initially to put some branding on my car.


However...

Firstly - have any of you done this and had a reasonable response from it? If so, can you recommend a good company that would be able to help me design the graphics for it and get them applied to my car (I wouldn't trust myself to do it!). I'm thinking probably window vinyls for the rear window and the four rear side passenger windows (it's an estate).

Thanks in advance!

Chris

The benefit of bus advertising over your own car is that they will be seen in your area, whereas you say you are doing a lot of miles which suggests you are working all over the place.

I had good response from white magnetics cut to shape to fit the side panels of a white Citroen Berlingo van which meant they blended in and didn't look stuck on. You can do a similar thing by colour coding the background of the magnetics with your car. Takes a keen eye to notice but space is limited and layout is key.